11 Pa. 202 | Pa. | 1849
The opinion of this court was delivered by
The bed, berm-bank, tow-paths, toll-houses, and collector’s offices, the constituent parts of an incorporated canal, and incident thereto, cannot, as is ruled, be assessed as real estate, under the acts of the 15th April, 1834, and the 29th April, 1844. This was decided a short time after the passage of the latter act, and after full consideration, in the case of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. v. Northampton County, 8 W. & S. 336, reaffirmed in the Railroad Company v. Berks County, 6 Barr, 70, and has been acquiesced in by the legislature, as the proper construction of the acts ever since. In view of these repeated recognitions, we do not feel ourselves at liberty, even if we were so inclined, to depart from a rule of construction so firmly established. As regards the toll-house erected for the accommodation of the collector, we see nothing to distinguish it from the cases already ruled. It makes no difference in principle, that the building erected as a toll-house be occupied
The defendant in error is compelled to admit that the bed of the canal and the berm-bank are exempt from taxation; but it is contended that the house in which the office of the collector is kept, and in which his family reside, is not. The argument is, as I understand it, that all buildings, lands, &c., are taxable unless expressly exempted; as, for example, churches, grave-yards, and
As the counsel for the plaintiff in error agrees the house occupied by the superintendent may be assessed, this opinion must be understood as extending only to the building occupied by the collector of tolls. The court was wrong in entering judgment generally for the plaintiff. So far as respects that, the judgment is reversed; but is affirmed as to the residue.